Introduction

UNHCR's Global Appeal is published yearly to alert governmental and private sector donors, Executive Committee (ExCom) members and Standing Committee observers, Governments and their Permanent Missions in Geneva, the UN Secretariat, UN agencies, intergovernmental agencies, NGOs, regional organizations and other institutions and interested individuals to the plight of millions of refugees and others of concern to UNHCR. This tenth Global Appeal outlines the Office's strategies and programmes for 2007, and will be launched officially at UNHCR's annual

Over ten years after the signature of the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, steady progress has been made in finding durable solutions for the hundreds of thousands of persons displaced by the wars in the former Yugoslavia. By September 2004, returns to and within Bosnia and Herzegovina reached the one million landmark figure. The number of persons in need of durable solutions (refugees and internally displaced) in the former Yugoslavia, which peaked at over two million during the Bosnian crisis in 1992-95 and

After the split of Serbia-Montenegro, a State Party since 2003, Serbia automatically remained as a State Party and the ICBL wrote to the Montenegro Minister of Foreign Affairs urging him to clarify his country's status regarding the MBT.

Together, Serbia and Montenegro had begun to destroy stockpiled antipersonnel mines in August 2005 and by March 2006 had destroyed 649,217 mines, almost half of the total stockpile. In Montenegro,

Kostunica pointed to the fact that the Serbian government has not received the document prepared by Ahtisaari regarding the solution for the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, neither has the government had an opportunity to talk with Ahtisaari on the matter.

The Serbian Prime Minister said that

Belgrade, Vienna, 31 October 2006. The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and non-governmental organizations in Serbia, including the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, the Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights are deeply concerned about reported irregularities in the conduct of the referendum on the new Constitution. The results of the unusual, two-day referendum on Saturday and Sunday, 28-29 October 2006, were announced to show that 51.5% of the total electorate backed the Constitution,

"I'm glad that the referendum was successful and that thus Serbia solved another difficult issue," Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told journalists.

Dodik said he hoped that the new charter would "significantly stabilise the situation within Serbia and create a good framework for more effective authorities."

His view was echoed by the nationalist

Ahtisaari, who has been leading talks between Belgrade and Pristina on the status of Kosovo, stepped short of proposing the independence for the UN-run province, said Kosovo's independent Express newspaper.

The Finnish diplomat recommended forming "the newest state in the Balkans ... with limited sovereignty, a continued

Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), congratulates Serbia for the orderly conduct of the referendum held on Sunday, 29 October on a new Constitution for the Republic of Serbia.

The High Representative said that the adoption of a new Constitution was an important step in moving the internal reform agenda forward and that Serbia could now concentrate on holding elections establishing the required institutions to support the implementation of the new Constitution.

Regarding the provisions relating to

According to CeSID's data presented at a press conference, a little more than 82,000 citizens or 81.6% went to the polls in Kosovo-Metohija, in Central Serbia around 1,740,000 or 52%, and in Vojvodina 740,000 or 43.6% of citizens.

A total of 760,000 citizens or 50.6%